Source: Feinstein.senate.govPress ReleaseSignificant ivory trafficking occurring inside the United States; illegal poaching claims 8 percent of African elephant population annually Washington—In a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is urging strong administrative action to end elephant and rhinoceros poaching and illegal ivory trafficking inside the United States. Feinstein wrote: “While estimates of the extent of the world’s illegal ivory trade that occurs in the U.S. vary greatly, by all accounts a very significant amount of trafficking occurs within our borders. I have serious concerns that our current policies have not effectively reduced ivory trafficking within the U.S. nor adequately protected elephant and rhinoceros populations globally.”“Elephant and rhinoceros poaching has increased dramatically in recent years, and is fueled in part by the demand for ivory in the United States. It is estimated by the African Wildlife Foundation that approximately 8% of the 470,000 remaining African elephants are poached illegally each year. Since 2010, this level of poaching is above the natural reproductive rates of elephants,” Feinstein added. Full text of the letter follows: December 9, 2013 The Honorable Sally JewellSecretary of the InteriorU. S. Department of the Interior1849 C Street, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20240 Dear Secretary Jewell,I am writing to request that you take the strongest possible administrative action to end elephant and rhinoceros poaching and the illegal trade in ivory. This should include developing a robust and systematic enforcement plan in coordination with your sister agencies to ensure our policies regulating the ivory trade are effectively implemented. More....

Source: AFW.orgWildAid, Save the Elephants, and the African Wildlife Foundation kicked off a campaign to reduce ivory demand today at the Shanghai Pudong Shangri-La Hotel. Former NBA star Yao Ming and WildAid co-founder Peter Knights called on China to help raise awareness of elephant poaching, reduce the demand for ivory, and protect endangered wildlife. The conservation groups also announced an anti-ivory public service campaign, to be televised internationally in 2014, featuring Yao Ming, American actor Edward Norton,China’s leading actress Li Bing Bing, Congolese NBA great Dikembe Mutombo, and current NBA star Jeremy Lin. China’s rapid economic development continues to create a burgeoning middle class that can afford endangered wildlife products such as ivory. The current demand for ivory claims the lives of as many as 25,000 African elephants annually. "To protect these endangered animals, we must reduce the market demand," said Yao Ming. “When people in China know what’s happening with the illegal ivory trade, they will say no to these products.” Recent surveys indicate a large portion of China’s population is unaware of the death toll to create ivory and rhino horn products, yet a greater number of residents support government enforced bans. (Read the ivory and rhino horn surveys.) "The illegal ivory trade threatens these already endangered animals, negatively impacts Africa’s tourism industry, and reportedly funds terror groups,” said WildAid’s Peter Knights. “The urgency of this crisis demands that we launch and grow this campaign.” The conservation groups also introduced a "Do not buy ivory" web page where the public can upload photos, pledge not to buy ivory, and show their support for wildlife conservation. “Africa’s elephants can no longer support the world’s addiction to ivory,” said African Wildlife Foundation CEO Patrick Bergin. “As the number one market for ivory in the world, China has a critical role to play in helping reduce demand for ivory. Owning ivory is simply not worth the bloody cost to elephants.” “China holds the future of Africa’s elephants in her hands. With Chinese leadership, elephants have a chance of a harmonious future with the modern world. But if the buying continues, the outlook for this magnificent species is bleak,” said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, CEO of Save the Elephants.

Source: Looktothestars.orgThe Duke of Cambridge, David Beckham, and Yao Ming are speaking out as fathers against illegal wildlife trade. “As a father I want our children to know that rhinos are not just a picture in a book,” says The Duke of Cambridge. The trio have joined forces with WildAid to protect elephants, rhinos, and sharks for future generations. In September of this year they met in London to film two messages that will air globally, with targeted outreach in China and Vietnam, beginning in January 2014 as part of WildAid’s demand reduction campaign and the Royal Foundation’s United for Wildlife Collaboration. The first message was released to the media earlier today at a press conference in Shanghai featuring Yao Ming and WildAid Executive Director Peter Knights. A second message focusing on rhino horn will be released in February.The Duke of Cambridge said, “We must stop the demand for illegally traded wildlife products within our lifetimes or these amazing animals will be forever wiped from the planet. As a father I want our children to know that rhinos are not just a picture in a book.” Poaching is on the rise as demand increases with economic growth in Asia. South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs reported on November 27 that 891 rhinos were killed so far in 2013 compared to 2007’s total of 13.“We can all do our part by sharing this message with buyers of illegal wildlife products,” said David Beckham. “If you do buy ivory, rhino horn, or shark fin I urge you to stop and help us bring these senseless killings to an end.” Recent surveys indicate a large portion of China’s population is unaware of the death toll to create ivory and rhino horn products, yet a greater number of residents support government enforced bans. (Read the ivory and rhino horn surveys.)“We must raise awareness and encourage action if we are going to stop the demand for these products,” said former NBA Star Yao Ming, an iconic figure in China. More....

Poaching is an illegal killing of wild animals in a national park, protected area or game ranch. About 100 years ago most of the African countries had a lot of wild animals but the numbers of animals have been reducing due to several activities such as illegal settlements, agriculture, road networks and poaching. The numbers have massively reduced in the last three to four decades because of high poaching levels. Animals such as elephants are some of the most poached because of their tusks. In Zambia, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of wild fauna and flora, elephants have been classified in appendices II. Appendix II includes all species which although not necessarily now threatened with extinction may become so unless trade in specimens of such species is subject to strict regulation in order to avoid utilisation incompatible with their survival. The population of this endangered species grows at a lower rate, in elephants the spacing between offspring is three to four years which takes many years for the population to grow. Let us now reflect on the article which was written by Kevin Wafula in Zimbabwe’s Hwange national park. Recent reports suggest more than 300 elephants have died in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park as a result of poachers lacing the park’s watering holes and salt licks with cyanide poison. How many years will it take us to attain this number of elephants?. Initially the number of elephant deaths had been pegged at about 40, with numbers climbing to more than 100 in early October. Most recently, however, aerial surveys over the park have revealed what looks to be the carcasses of more than 300 dead elephants. In almost all cases, the elephant tusks were removed, underscoring the fact that this was a coordinated poaching attack. “It’s one more horrific chapter in the tragic story of the African elephant,” says Philip Muruthi, senior director of conservation science at the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). “Though elephants may have been the target, poison is indiscriminate in who or what it kills. Lions, hyenas, vultures, kudu, and other wildlife, in addition to elephants, have fallen victim.” More....

Source: Sciencedaily.comThe most detailed range-wide assessment of the bonobo (formerly known as the pygmy chimpanzee) ever conducted has revealed that this poorly known and endangered great ape is quickly losing space in a world with growing human populations.The loss of usable habitat is attributed to both forest fragmentation and poaching, according to a new study by University of Georgia, University of Maryland, the Wildlife Conservation Society, ICCN (Congolese Wildlife Authority), African Wildlife Foundation, Zoological Society of Milwaukee, World Wildlife Fund, Max Planck Institute, Lukuru Foundation, University of Stirling, Kyoto University, and other groups. Using data from nest counts and remote sensing imagery, the research team found that the bonobo -- one of humankind's closest living relatives -- avoids areas of high human activity and forest fragmentation. As little as 28 percent of the bonobo's range remains suitable, according to the model developed by the researchers in the study, which now appears in the December edition of Biodiversity and Conservation. "This assessment is a major step towards addressing the substantial information gap regarding the conservation status of bonobos across their entire range," said lead author Dr. Jena R. Hickey of Cornell University and the University of Georgia. "The results of the study demonstrate that human activities reduce the amount of effective bonobo habitat and will help us identify where to propose future protected areas for this great ape." "For bonobos to survive over the next 100 years or longer, it is extremely important that we understand the extent of their range, their distribution, and drivers of that distribution so that conservation actions can be targeted in the most effective way and achieve the desired results," said Ashley Vosper of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Bonobos are probably the least understood great ape in Africa, so this paper is pivotal in increasing our knowledge and understanding of this beautiful and charismatic animal." The bonobo is smaller in size and more slender in build than the common chimpanzee. The great ape's social structure is complex and matriarchal. Unlike the common chimpanzee, bonobos establish social bonds and diffuse tension or aggression with sexual behaviors.The entire range of the bonobo lies within the lowland forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa and currently beset with warfare and insecurity. More....

Source: Blogs.scientificamerican.comBy Kate WongOn a clear day outside Denver, dust filled the air surrounding an industrial rock crusher as it pulverized nearly six tons of confiscated elephant ivory. Loader trucks dumped batch after batch of whole tusks, elaborately carved figurines, bracelets and other baubles into the giant blue crusher, which spit them out as a stream of fragments that resembled remnants of seashells pounded by heavy surf. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) destroyed the 25 years’ worth of ivory seizures—a quantity that could command perhaps $12 million on the black market–to signal to the world that the U.S. will not tolerate elephant poaching or wildlife crime in general. For many attendees, the crush was also a funeral of sorts for the more than 2,000 elephants that were slaughtered for the ivory that ended up here in Colorado. The U.S. is not the first country to destroy its seized ivory. In 1989, Kenya responded to rampant elephant poaching by burning its stockpile. More recently, with poaching surging to record levels of 30,000 elephants or more a year, Gabon and the Philippines have destroyed their ivory, too. The U.S. ivory crush on November 14 followed President Obama’s July 1 executive order calling on government agencies to step up efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade.Concerns over the trade have been escalating not only because of the dramatic spike in elephant deaths but because of who is doing the killing. In contrast to the elephant poaching crisis of the 1980s, which resulted mainly from opportunistic hunting carried out by individuals, the current crisis is the work of transnational criminal syndicates that traffic in wildlife just as they traffic in humans, drugs and arms. Profits from the illegal sale of ivory, rhinoceros horn and other wildlife products–a $19-billion-a-year industry–are now known to fund terrorist and other extremist groups. Yet whether the destruction of ivory stockpiles will actually help stamp out the trade is a matter of some debate. Critics contend that it may actually have the opposite effect. By reducing the ivory supply, such events will drive the price up and thus stimulate the poaching of even more elephants, so the argument goes. Experts from government and nongovernment organizations who spoke at the U.S. ivory crush event defended the decision to destroy the stockpile. Peter Knights of WildAid, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in San Francisco, observed that people who argue against the destruction of ivory stockpiles think that having a legal supply is the answer to the poaching problem. But attempts to flood the market with ivory in the past have had disastrous results, actually increasing poaching rather than curbing it. “I think we have to look at history and we have to learn this lesson,” he said. “People need to understand this is just as heinous a crime as consumption of heroin or something like that. We don’t put heroin back on the market when we seize it.” More....

Source: AWF.orgPress Release Following the destruction of the U.S. government’s stockpile of ivory in Denver on Thursday, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) released the following statement from CEO Patrick Bergin: On behalf of the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), I commend the U.S. government for the leadership it has shown today in destroying its stockpile of ivory, and I urge all countries with their own reserves of ivory—be they producer, transit, or consumer countries—to take the equally courageous step of destroying their stockpiles. As I watched the government crush more than two decades’ worth of confiscated ivory—nearly 6 tons in all—I could not help but think of the 12 tons of illegal ivory recently seized in China. And the 2 tons of ivory seized in Tanzania two weeks ago. And the 6 tons seized in Malaysia at the end of last year. I am convinced more than ever of the necessity of destroying all stockpiles and ending trade in ivory in order to disrupt the world’s addiction to ivory. Though a 1989 ban on the international trade in ivory remains in place, many countries, including China and the United States, still allow domestic trade, which has served only to sustain demand for ivory products while providing legalized cover for the illicit industry. Today the U.S. government sent a clear, unambiguous message to those who would kill for, profit by, or otherwise benefit from the illegal wildlife trade that there is absolutely no appetite for the kind of destruction that consumer demand for ivory has spawned. Over the past year, Africa’s elephants have been poisoned, gunned down, speared, and hacked apart. They can no longer support the world’s addiction to ivory. The debate is over. Ivory belongs to elephants.

Source: Noodls.comPress ReleaseAs the U.S. government prepares to crush its 6 tons of confiscated ivory, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) urges other countries around the world to follow suit and destroy their own ivory stockpiles. Furthermore, with more than 35,000-and perhaps as many as 50,000-African elephants killed for their tusks every year, AWF proposes all countries implement immediate domestic moratoria on trade in ivory until all elephant populations are no longer threatened. This new position by AWF comes in response to the changing situation on the ground. "Right now, Africa is hemorrhaging elephants," says African Wildlife Foundation CEO Patrick Bergin. "Elephant carcasses-the ones that are documented-lie strewn in forests, on savannas, and in national parks, and their stolen ivory flows out of Africa's airports and seaports to illegal ivory markets around the world. The only way to staunch the movement of illegal ivory is to wipe out the demand, and that begins with destroying stockpiles and stopping trade." Destroying all stockpiled ivory and implementing domestic moratoria on ivory trade will send a message to buyers, traffickers, and suppliers of ivory that it is no longer a tradable commodity. It will remove the economic incentives that drive poaching and prevent illegal ivory from being trafficked under cover of the legalized trade-in effect wiping out the illicit ivory marketplace. Though a 1989 ban on international trade in ivory remains in place, many countries, including China and the United States, allow raw and worked ivory to be traded domestically. That allowance, coupled with rising affluence in Asia, has precipitated an unsustainable demand for ivory-long considered a symbol of wealth and status-and created a black market for the product as demand outstrips legal supplies. Ivory procured for the black market now fetches a price higher than gold. "Affluence in Asia and poverty in Africa have collided to create a perfect storm with elephants at the center," says Bergin. "What the rich person demands, the poor poacher provides. In between is a nefarious network of criminals, terrorists, rebels, and corrupted officials and business people only too eager to pilfer a slice of the pie." In the 1970s and 1980s, poachers cut in half Africa's elephant population. An international outcry over the slaughter and subsequent global ivory ban gave elephants a reprieve, but the renewed assault of the past few years threatens to upend the conservation gains of the past two decades. "If we want the killing to stop, everyone-from governments of elephant range states to those of ivory consuming nations-must contribute something to the solution and send a message that enough is enough," says Jimmiel Mandima, director of U.S. government relations for the African Wildlife Foundation. More....

Source: AllAfrica.comPress ReleasePresence of other rebel groups in region, in combination with other threats against great apes, still pose potential harm to the endangered species. After more than a year and a half in conflict against the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the M23 rebel group has announced it will disband and disarm, paving the way for peace in eastern Congo. The recent events are a positive sign not only for people, but also for the endangered mountain gorilla, whose habitat has inadvertently served as home base and occasional battlefield for the rebel group. "The disbanding of the M23 rebel group will mean one less threat to the mountain gorilla, and that is a very positive thing," remarked Jef Dupain, director of the Great Apes Program for the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). "We must remain vigilant, however, as a few dozen rebel groups are still thought to operate in this area. The potential for conflict, in addition to the other threats that great apes face, means that ensuring stabilization of the mountain gorilla population must remain a priority for conservation groups and the region's governments." Only about 880 mountain gorillas exist in the world, and all live in Africa's Virunga mountain range--where DRC, Uganda, and Rwanda meet--and Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This part of Africa is particularly rich in natural resources, and the potential for exploitation of these resources has regularly played a role in area conflicts. Natural resource extraction poses a significant threat for Africa's great apes, as well, whose forested habitats are being degraded and diminished over time. "Today's great apes are under threat not only from habitat destruction and fragmentation, but also poaching, the risk of disease transfer from humans, and the pet trade," Dupain explained. "Even without conflict and war, Africa's apes are struggling for survival." Africa is home to four of the world's five great apes. All four--which include the eastern gorilla, of which the mountain gorilla is a subspecies, western gorilla, bonobo, and common chimpanzee--are either endangered or critically endangered. In an effort to provide greater protections to great apes and their habitats across Central and West Africa, AWF recently launched the African Apes Initiative. The initiative leverages the organization's three decades of experience in mountain gorilla and bonobo conservation to build capacity among protected area authorities, strengthen monitoring of protected areas, provide much-needed equipment for rangers, and increase community engagement in conservation.

Energy and serenity. That's what you feel these days when you visit Africa. Urban centres are hives of activity, trade and enthusiasm, while more remote areas - home to elephants, giraffes and mountain gorillas - move at their own quiet pace. Whether you are zipping along in a taxi or bumping along in a safari vehicle, you sense the possibility of this truly unique continent. I recently returned from a two-part trip to Africa, where I visited Uganda and Kenya. The first half of the trip was spent touring Uganda's amazing wildlife areas. Lions, zebra, elephants and the most exciting of all, mountain gorillas, accompanied us during this part of the journey. The second half of my trip was spent in Nairobi, Kenya's bustling capital city, where I attended my first board meeting as a new trustee of the African Wildlife Foundation, a group whose mission is to ensure that Africa's wildlife and wild lands endure. As so much of Africa undergoes an economic transformation, never will the foundation's conservation work be so important as in the next few decades. Because of my career in finance and investment banking, I am fascinated by the trade relationship that has developed between my homeland - China - and Africa. It is like watching a giant that awoke 30 years ago shake and stir another, even bigger giant. The billions of dollars in foreign direct investment being poured into Africa from China have been truly transformative. The visage of Africa is changing too, as more than a million Chinese guest workers now work and live there. This movement isn't all one way, either. African entrepreneurs are frequently meeting their Chinese business partners on Chinese turf and buying Chinese goods for sale back home. Though not without its bumps, the relationship between China and Africa promises to lift populations on both sides of the Indian Ocean out of poverty. Casting a dark cloud over the relationship is the illegal ivory trade, however. I say "trade", but it's not trade. Really, it is theft; theft and exploitation of Africa's natural resources. More than 35,000 African elephants are now poached for their tusks every year. This type of killing cannot be sustained. Yet so long as demand for ivory remains high in China and other parts of the world, there will be those - terrorist groups, criminal syndicates, impoverished poachers - who will not hesitate to kill every last elephant in Africa and Asia. This is the disheartening side of the China-Africa relationship. As I write this in my office in Hong Kong, I am reminded that, just three months ago, authorities here seized one of the biggest hauls of smuggled ivory ever. Before that, another large shipment of ivory was discovered hidden in a container from West Africa. And, before that, airport authorities discovered a package of illegal ivory en route to Singapore. More....

Source: Wildlifedirect.orgBy PaulaKenyan lawmakers are expected to pass major new wildlife legislation this week. WildlifeDirect is lobbying for lengthy jail sentences but is against the proposed minimum sentence of life imprisonment. Life imprisonment sounds good but will be impossible to implement and is likely to result in an extremely high rate of case dismissals and acquittals. We propose “Up to life imprisonment” for killing elephants and rhino or trading in their products.This will force magistrates to treat these crimes as felonies which will allow for lengthy jail sentences. Wildlife crimes are currently treated as petty offences and fewer than 5% of convictions lead to jail sentences.Dr Paula Kahumbu spoke to the Rt Hon. Owen Paterson, the British Secretary of State for the Environment about the Hands Off Our Elephants Campaign plans, achievements and ideas for moving forward. She explained the implications of the new legislation and how it is essential to halt the decline of Kenya’s iconic species. He assured her and all Kenyans that Britain will help Kenya. Kenya is one of the worlds most renowned countries for wildlife tourism and tourism generates 12% of the national GDP and employs over 300,000 people. Despite this, the very wildlife that tourism depends on is declining due to land use change, habitat change, land degradation, illegal hunting and trafficking of wildlife products.

Kahumbu emphasized that while new legislation is an important part of protecting the wildlife asset of Kenya but alone it will not be enough. Law enforcement agencies are not currently using existing legislation to it’s fullest extent. She explained that the WildlifeDirect strategy is to initiate a response to the poaching crisis through behaviour change and reform across different scales and through connections between different players from communities to governments and international organizations. More....

Kenya Every day, 96 elephants are gunned down in Africa. Every 11 hours, a rhino is slaughtered. And every few years, Kenya loses a wildlife park ranger at the hands of a poacher.

“Encounters between the poachers and the rangers almost always turn fatal on one side,” said Paul Mbugua, a spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service, which has lost 13 rangers to poachers in the last three years — four this year alone. “It’s like fighting a guerrilla war.”As a resurgence of illicit ivory and rhino-horn trafficking leaves a trail of blood across Africa, this East African nation is borrowing a page from America’s war on drugs. Sniffer dogs, normally used to ferret out cocaine shipments, are being put to work in Kenya to track down hidden tusks and horns passing through Kenya’s seaport and airports. “They are very good,” said Cpl. David Sang, head of the Kenya Wildlife Service’s K-9 unit based in Mombasa, a leading transit route for smugglers. “A dog’s sense of smell is very high.”Indeed, even ivory, referred to as “white gold” in China, carries its own scent. So do rhino horns, which sell for close to $30,000 a pound — as much as $390,000 for the horns of a single white rhino — on the black market, according to the African Wildlife Foundation. The dogs have become a key tool in Kenya where rangers are being outgunned and outwitted by ruthless, well-armed and well-financed poachers trying to meet the growing demand for ivory and rhino horns in Asia. But the unprecedented demand is presenting an economic and security challenge for Kenya, which attracts about $1 billion a year in wildlife tourism revenue. More....

Communities that have bought into conservation and tourism risk losing it all to 'new breed of poachers'.On the busy tarmac of the Kajiado Airstrip at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, Fiesta Warinwa - the African Wildlife Foundation's Kenya director - is smiling.

An animal census is under way and aircraft from all over Kenya and Tanzania are counting elephants and other large mammals found in the Amboseli and Kilimanjaro regions. "Am I optimistic? My answer would be 'yes,'" said Warinwa. "In terms of population stability for the elephants, I think they're very stable." It is a rare victory in the fight for wildlife conservation. The Amboseli ecosystem is bucking a mortifying trend of declining big game numbers throughout much of Africa's wilderness. Elsewhere, Kenya has not been immune to the war on Africa's wildlife. In 2012, 384 elephants were slain, many rhinos have been slaughtered for their horns, and as recently as October this year, a four-tonne shipment of ivory was intercepted by authorities in Mombasa. When the price is right, it's a white gold rush for those willing to take the risks involved. Communities that live side-by-side with wildlife are facing a choice between the sometimes fickle promises of tourism, or the short-term cash bonanza from poaching.Traditionally, those most prone to poaching have been people with little means of making a legitimate income. More....

Provisional results for the just-ended Kenya-Tanzania census for elephants and other large mammals in Amboseli ecosystem shows recovery from deaths occasioned by drought between 2008 and 2010. A total of 1193 elephants were counted compared to a similar dry season in October 2010 count of 1065, a 12 per cent increase. In April, the wet season count showed 1,930 elephants compared to 1,420 in April 2010, a 35 per cent increase. Final results of the one-week census, which ended at the weekend, will be released in three months. This dry season count marked the fourth joint such exercise between Kenyan and Tanzanian wildlife authorities since 2010 when the collaboration started. Both dry and wet season counts have shown that the ecosystem’s elephant population is stable and growing. KWS Director Mr William Kiprono, who presided over the census closing ceremony, said: “Amboseli is one of our success stories and we owe it to the local community, whichhas warded off possible poachers.” The Sh12 million-census was collaboration between the two countries and their agencies; the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Wildlife Division of Tanzania (WD) Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA). The bulk of the funding for the census was provided by the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), which also facilitated the cross-border work. The exercise was also supported by other conservation non-governmental organizations (NGOs) notably Amboseli Trust for Elephants, David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Marwell Wildlife, Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary, private sponsors and members of the local community. The aerial census sought to establish the landscape’s wildlife population abundance, trends and distribution. The results are expected to enhance knowledge on the relation between wildlife, habitat and human impacts while at the same fostering cross-border collaboration on wildlife monitoring and management between the two East African countries.

Recently, I had the honor of taking part in an extraordinary event at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) where nations and NGOs made a historic commitment to end elephant poaching by stopping the killing, stopping the trafficking and stopping the demand for ivory. Wildlife trafficking is currently the fifth most profitable illegal trade (after drugs, human trafficking, oil theft and counterfeiting). Ivory is one of the most valuable wildlife products on the black market; it's currently valued at more than US $1,000 a pound. In addition, it is virtually untraceable -- as the domestic trade of ivory is still legal in some countries, it's nearly impossible to tell its source or legality. The illegal wildlife trade is a stark example of the direct connection between natural resources and both U.S. and global security. Wildlife trafficking, a $7-10 billion enterprise, funds terrorist groups like the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, Darfur's Janjaweed militia and Al-Shabab, the Somalian terrorist group responsible for last month's horrific murders at a Nairobi shopping mall. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been instrumental in bringing this issue to the world stage and highlighting the devastating impact poaching and wildlife trafficking have on African nations, as well as on world security. Her passion and dedication to stopping trafficking was evident earlier this year when she engaged in a discussion at our New York dinner with Conservation International Vice Chair Harrison Ford, and spoke so eloquently about the devastation caused by traffickers who now arrive equipped with automatic rifles and other advanced technology. Secretary Clinton and Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton were responsible for bringing us together to commit to stopping wildlife trafficking. They deserve our thanks and gratitude for putting this issue on the CGI agenda. More....

The US has promised to destroy its ivory stockpile on October 8, 2013, as part of a commitment to build further momentum towards ending the illegal trade in ivory... The move seeks to highlight how ivory trinkets have no value in a civilised world and instead their production and purchase only contributes to the killing of elephants. "An elephant loses its life to poaching, on average, every 15 minutes..." explains Jeff Flocken, of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). "The battle to save elephants cannot be fought in isolation... he says. "The US is calling for countries to stand together in the global effort to combat the current poaching crisis and the illegal wildlife trade...” IFAW has praised the US and other nations' leadership on this issue, drawing attention to the plight of elephants in recent years that have been facing increasing threats as the illegal trade in ivory has escalated... Just in Africa 35,000 elephants were killed illegally in 2012... The US stockpile of raw and carved ivory weighs 5.4 tonnes and will be crushed at a location outside Denver, Colorado. Illegal wildlife trade generates an estimated USD 19 billion per year, says IFAW, an enormous criminal trade that has even been linked to international terrorism... More....

Kenyan and Tanzanian will jointly conduct a cross-border aerial count of elephants and other large mammals in the shared ecosystem of the Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro and Natron-Magadi landscape. Kenya Wildlife Service spokesperson Paul Udoto says the initiative is set to start from October 6 to 13, 2013.

The weeklong exercise is a collaboration between the two countries and their wildlife agencies; the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Wildlife Division of Tanzania and Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) together with affiliated Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) like the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE), private sponsors and members of the local community. The aerial census seeks to establish the landscape's wildlife population abundance, trends and distribution. It will also enhance knowledge on the relationship between wildlife, habitat and human impacts while at the same fostering cross-border collaboration on wildlife monitoring and management between the two East African countries. The exercise seeks to safeguard the vast ecosystem that is threatened by human influence that includes pastoral activities, crop farming and proliferation of charcoal burning. "This in a huge way affects wildlife dispersal and a huge concern to the future of the area for wildlife conservation." More....

Conservation groups announced today a three-year $80 million Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action that will bring together NGOs, governments, and concerned citizens to stop the slaughter of Africa’s elephants, which are being decimated due to poaching for ivory. The Commitment Makers and their partners commit to funding and facilitating partnerships to advance a new three-pronged strategy that will catalyze a global movement to coordinate and leverage influence, constituencies, and resources to protect key elephant populations from poaching while reducing trafficking and demand for ivory. Funding for this commitment has been provided by myriad public and private sources, including U.S., European, and African governments; along with multi-lateral institutions, foundations, and concerned individuals. Nations joining in the commitment include: Botswana, Cote D’Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, South Sudan, Malawi, and Uganda.

These funds will be used to support national governments to scale up anti-poaching enforcement at the 50 priority elephant sites including hiring and supporting an additional 3,100 park guards. In addition, anti-trafficking efforts will be increased by strengthening intelligence networks and penalties for violations and adding training and sniffer dog teams at 10 key transit points. New demand reduction efforts will be implemented in 10 consumer markets over the next three years.

Further, leaders from African nations led a call for other countries to adopt trade moratoria on all commercial ivory imports, exports and domestic sales of ivory products until African elephant populations are no longer threatened by poaching. More....

It’s open season on elephants in Africa. In 2012 poachers killed 35,000 elephants—that’s nearly 96 per day, part of an illegal killing spree that has seen the number of African elephants plummet by 76% since 1980. The targets are the elephants’ tusks, made of ivory that can be shipped abroad and sold for more than $1,000 per pound in rapidly growing Asian markets. Wildlife trafficking is valued at $7-$10 billion a year, making it the fifth most lucrative illegal activity after the drug trade, human trafficking, oil theft and counterfeiting. And because the penalties for poaching tend to be far more weaker than the punishment for trading drugs or people, it’s become an attractive business for criminal syndicates and terrorist groups alike. “Poaching has become an enormous problem and one of the most profitable criminal activities there is,” says Peter Seligmann, the CEO of Conservation International. “It’s destabilizing to nations, it’s a threat to security forces and it’s a serious loss for local economies that depend on wildlife.” The illegal wildlife trade is blood money at its bloodiest. Part of the problem is that the good guys have long been outgunned by the bad guys. Rangers in African nations are often poorly equipped compared to syndicate-backed hunters with night-vision goggles and high-powered rifles. But a new commitment that will be announced later this morning at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) summit in New York may begin to balance the fight. An alliance of conservation groups—including CI, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare—will come together with a number of African nations to improve anti-poaching efforts on the ground, disrupt international trafficking networks—and perhaps most importantly, work to cool the feverish demand for ivory products in the rising consumer nations of Asia. “We have a proposed strategy to stop the killing, stop the trafficking and stop the demand,” says Cristian Samper, the president of WCS. “We need to step up the game.”This isn’t the first time wide scale poaching threatened ivory-carrying species like the African elephant and the even-rarer rhino—the 1980s were marked by the bloody “Ivory Wars” that only came to an end in 1989 when the members of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted to ban the sale of ivory altogether. Ivory jewelry became taboo in much of the world, which reduced the demand and the killing. Elephant and rhino numbers were able to recover. More....

Poachers have begun using more subtle techniques to slaughter elephants in Zimbabwe, swapping rifles and machetes for industrial grade poison. Yesterday, a provincial court convicted three poachers on charges of using cyanide to kill scores of elephants in Zimbabwe's largest national park, sentencing each to at least 15 years in prison. Earlier this week, authorities confirmed that 87 elephants have been killed by cyanide in Hwange National Park, a total that includes the 41 poisoned animals discovered there earlier this month. It's not entirely clear how the elephants were poisoned, though authorities believe poachers placed cyanide in areas where the animals are known to graze before seizing their valuable ivory tusks. Fifty-one tusks have been recovered thus far, officials told CNN, meaning that poachers may have escaped with more than 120. Investigations are ongoing, but officials believe the operation likely impacted other animals in the area, as well. "Several other animals have also died, but we don't have the total number yet," Jerry Gotora, director of the Zimbabwe parks department, told AFP on Tuesday.Elephant and rhinoceros populations have declined at alarming rates over the past few years, due in large part to surging demand for ivory in China, where the material is used for valuable carvings and traditional elixirs. Rising demand has sent prices skyward — one pound of ivory can fetch $1,300 on the black market — fueling a nefarious network of poachers across Africa. Reports suggest that ivory trade revenue has been used to fund wars and terrorist groups, including al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based militant group believed be behind last week's attack on a mall in Kenya. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) passed an international ban on ivory trading in 1989, but enforcing it has proven to be difficult. Experts believe tens of thousands of elephants are killed for their ivory every year, and evidence suggests that the trend is only worsening; in 2011, authorities seized more illegal ivory at ports than at any point since 1989, when record keeping began. More....

African Wildlife Foundation announces new Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action to scale up investment in Africa for the benefit of people and wildlife.

The perception of Africa as a troubled continent—riddled with war, stricken by disease, handicapped by corruption—may have once hampered private sector growth, but this is rapidly changing. Foreign investors are looking to Africa as a land of opportunity, while a growing group of African entrepreneurs is discovering a much friendlier business environment as the costs of starting and maintaining a business in Africa have fallen by more than two-thirds over the last seven years. At the same time, a new species of investor—the impact investor—is looking for more than a financial return on investment, in search of businesses that will also yield social and environmental returns. With the confluence of these factors, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) today announced a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action at the CGI Annual Meeting to raise and subsequently invest US$5 million in African businesses through its impact investing subsidiary, African Wildlife Capital (AWC). The commitment offers a glimpse into the innovative new way in which one nonprofit conservation organization is leveraging private investment to promote conservation and sustainable development in Africa. “Development is sometimes seen as anathema to conservation,” said African Wildlife Foundation CEO Patrick Bergin. “But the fact is, Africa is developing at a rapid rate, with or without the blessing of the conservation community. The decision for conservation groups is whether we sit on the sidelines or whether we try and direct this development and foreign investment in Africa for the good of wildlife and people. This is precisely what African Wildlife Capital aims to do.” More....

The Duke of Cambridge, David Beckham, and Yao Ming have teamed up in London to film two public service messages on illegal wildlife products.

The aim of the campaign is to reduce the demand for both rhino horn and ivory. The targeted outreach is said to be China and Vietnam, as part of WildAid’s demand reduction campaign and the Royal Foundation’s United for Wildlife Collaboration.

The Duke of Cambridge said, “At the root of the illegal wildlife trade is the demand for products that require the deaths of tens of thousands of these animals every year, pushing them further towards extinction.”

The ivory trade claims the lives of an estimated 25 000 elephants annually and according to South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs, as of September 5 at least 618 rhinos were killed for their horns in 2013, which may break last year’s record of 668 poached rhinos later this month.

“When I learned of the current poaching levels in Africa, I immediately agreed to help get this message out,” said David Beckham.

“It is shocking to think that we could lose these animals from the wild in our lifetimes.”

Following a respite in the 1990s, demand for rhino horn is rising with booming economies in Vietnam and China. More....

From VOA Learning English, welcome to As It Is. I’m Steve Ember Today we tell about how the United States is trying to help control poaching in Africa.

And, we take note of a very special phonograph record called “Sounds of Earth” that was launched into space on this date in 1977. We’re still waiting for a reply.

The United States recently launched a 10-million-dollar effort to help fight animal poaching in Africa. Money from the illegal trade in animal products may be supporting some militant groups on the continent. But at least one expert says the American effort alone will not be enough to solve the problem.

Johan Bergenas is with the Managing Across Boundaries Initiative at the Stimson Center, a non-profit group in Washington. He says current anti-poaching efforts have failed to stop the killing of thousands of animals every year.

He says poaching across borders is not new as a criminal activity. He notes that the killing of animals has increased over the past 12 to 18 months. And cross-border criminal groups and terrorist organizations are involved.

Johan Bergenas says Somali militants, for example, have gained from poaching. He says that for a number of years, the Kenya Wildlife Service has reported a strong link between the militants and al Shabab. American officials have shown ties between the Somali-based group and Al-Qaeda.

“The more interesting and dangerous pattern, though, is that transnational criminal groups are now increasingly profiting off of poaching and adjacent activities.” More....

While elephant poaching has been a serious challenge at different points in time for more than a century, it has recently risen to alarmingly high levels. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, the African elephant population has dropped from 1.2 million in 1980 to just 420,000 in 2012. While land use pressures and habitat loss pose serious threats to elephants, it is the illegal killing of elephants for their ivory that could cause them to become extinct within our lifetime. Last year alone, 35,000 African elephants were poached for their tusks, for their ivory. This is not just an ecological disaster; it is an economic and security threat as well. Tourism, a vital source of income for many of the most-affected African countries, is threatened if wildlife preserves are depopulated. The overall black market for illegal wildlife trade has become the fourth most lucrative criminal activity internationally, after drugs, counterfeit goods, and human trafficking. Wildlife trafficking yields $19 billion per year, according to The International Fund for Animal Welfare’s recent report. These illicit profits fuel rebel and militia groups, even terrorist organizations. Ivory and other wildlife commodities help finance some of their operations in East Africa, West Africa, and possibly further afield, adding to the already increasing concerns around global security. The illegal ivory trade is buoyed by rising demand. China and Thailand’s increasing affluence, as well as the growing middle class elsewhere in Asia, has been a key contributor to the increasing demand for ivory. Not surprisingly, as the demand increases, so too does the price of tusks and ivory and the tragic incentives for elephant poachers. According to a recent Washington Post article, Savannah elephant tusks sell for up to $1,000 per pound, with forest elephant ivory often fetching an even higher price given its prized pinkish hue. Yet, it’s not just animal poaching or the illegal trade of animal parts that has enveloped within this crisis – poachers are putting park rangers in danger too. In the last decade alone, 1,000 rangers in 35 different countries have been killed. To help end this crisis, we need a complete systems change and we need to recognize that elephant poaching exists within its own market system – we need to stop the killing, stop the trafficking, and stop the demand by educating end consumers. Last November, as then-Secretary of State, my mother announced the beginning of an effort to further recognize and address international wildlife trafficking, and just last month, President Obama issued an executive order on Combating Wildlife Trafficking, with a $10 million pledge demonstrating the United States’ commitment to addressing the crisis and related organized crime issue by working with foreign governments. More....